A supposedly patent-free suggestion/solution to the curious subpixel rendering in Fedora

[Roberto Ragusa]

Kevin Kofler wrote:
> 
> Apart from the bytecode interpreter, freetype-freeworld just enables the
> subpixel rendering in the upstream freetype. So does Fedora's freetype
> since Fedora 10. (It was disabled in F9, it got reenabled in F10, I have no
> idea what the rationale was for each of those decisions.) So these days the
> only difference between freetype and freetype-freeworld is the bytecode
> interpreter.

Rendering with BCI enabled always looked awful to me, the BC-equipped fonts
really turn into a b&w bitmap, which appears ugly to me. Maybe people who
use Windows really like them, but my eyes are much more happy with light
hinting and don't care about the color fringes; this could depend on the
monitor DPI (my screen is 133dpi, I suppose 1024x768 17" laptops are
another story).

I just use the freetype from Fedora 10 and I consider my fonts beautifully
rendered. Probably the autohinter is doing its work well.

I think that font rendering on Mac is worse than on my Fedora. No colors,
but really blurry chars; they mitigate the effect by using huge font sizes
in the GUI.

Just a thought: do I remember correctly that the color filter is just a
simple y(0)=(x(-1)+x(0)+x(1))/3 on the subpixels? Did anyone consider that
R, G and B have different brightness to the human eye and should be weighted
more smartly?

-- 
   Roberto Ragusa    mail at robertoragusa.it